The social and economic ramifications of paid sex have been discussed extensively in various forums. One interesting bit is that prostitution is not legal in all countries in the world. However, for countries like the Philippines, where the practice is illegal, the prevalence of paid sex continues unabated. Sex tourism is one of the large lures of foreigners to Asia.

Casas (brothels), which are not considered legitimate establishments, offer sex services at more affordable rates. Then, there are also clubs, bars and KTVs where customers and GROs or bar girls can spend an hour or more at the VIP room with their customers for P1,500 to P2,000 and have sex for another P2,000 to P2,500. Outside the VIP room, a lady’s drink would cost the customer P500 to P600 every 30 minutes. One of these clubs in Quezon City is getting a lot of Japanese and Korean customers, because it is known for employing really young girls.

Another form of prostitution is the so-called escort service, where the call girl accompanies the tourist to the places he wants to visit, including the hotel room where he stays. This has also evolved into a sex tour. In Makati City, some expatriates recruit girls to join them in a party where sex is open to everyone who is present. The escort service trade is highly popular in Puerto Galera, Palawan and Boracay.

Prostitution is known as the oldest profession in the world, in wikipedia:

A variety of terms are used for those who engage in prostitution, some of which distinguish between different kinds, or imply a value judgment about them. Prostitute is generally accepted as the least value-laden term; common alternatives with varying implications include escort and whore. (Not all professional escorts are prostitutes, however.) Prostitution is sometimes nicknamed the “world’s oldest profession”.

The English word whore derives from the Old English word hōra (from the Indo-European root kā meaning “desire”). Use of the word whore is widely considered pejorative, especially in its modern slang form of ho’. In Germany most prostitutes’ organizations deliberately use the word Hure (whore) since they feel that prostitute is a bureaucratic term. Those seeking to remove the social stigma associated with prostitution often promote terminology such as commercial sex worker (CSW) or sex trade worker. A hooker or streetwalker solicits customers in public places; a call girl makes appointments by phone.

Why does prostitution create so much controversy? Is it because of the intermingling of sex and money–which arguably are the two most powerful forces in society today?

What does a prostitute symbolize? A perversion of something given to humanity (i.e. the sexual nature)? However, we share this nature with majority of the animal kingdom. Is it then the application of sex to earn money, which is now a human construct and part of society. However, how different is this from selling other human talents for pay? By becoming capitalists, producers, and employees–aren’t we also engaging in prostitution on some level?

The other dimension to prostitution is the health risk–especially with the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. However, many other jobs also pose significant health risks to those engaging in certain professions, especially skilled and unskilled labor. How different is prostitution from them?

interesting. enterprising and controversial, which goes back to the fact that it’s enterprising.

it’s an issue ripe for argument because it poses moral dilemmas. but to paraphrase a certain candidate, surely there are some points where most of us can agree.

hopefully most of us can agree that we benefit when we can create more opportunities for meaningful employment so that poverty becomes less of a reason to enter prostitution.

hopefully most of us can agree that it benefits no one when a prostitute contracts a sexually communicable disease, or when a prostitute gets beaten up or killed, and therefore, we benefit when safeguards are set up so that all persons have access to barrier methods of contraception, decent healthcare, and protection from violence.

intsik girls are trained to become prostitutes of sorts. That is because they are required to “help” their fathers and brothers without compensation, and the only time they can get paid is when a man marries or “purchase” a girl. We still have dowries until now. Dowries are paid through staging a formal engagement party”Tinghun”. This is a very expensive form of prostitution. That is also why (traditional)intsik men still put high value on virginity. What are they paying for in the “tinghun” anyway?

To say that workers, employees, and other professionals engage in prostitution on some level is twisting things. Any capitalist transaction requires an exchange of money, but that does not a prostitute make. Prostitution is prostitution because a person is giving away something normally given for free, given mutual consent and special circumstances, and turning it into a form of service. Call me romantic, but that sexual congress is done for something as petty as money, dislocates sex from its position as an important aspect in our social and personal lives. It cheapens it. I would think that as rational, thinking beings, there would be some lines we wouldn’t cross. The one thing that prostitution and capitalism WOULD share if the exchange of service means selling human dignity as well.

So the argument would actually be about–does prostitution debase human dignity? I say that it would. Sex is one the most primal and private acts of human life. Sex is where the human race comes from. You and I are here because two people had sex. Everyone has different values and views about it, but there is a certainly lot of energy surrounding it. During sex you are literally letting someone have access to a part of you normally hidden from the public. It’s totally private–Some would even say sacred. And that life-creating act can be bought, for as cheap as two digits? By just anyone, by the highest bidder? If you to do just that, sell your privacy, what else will you willing to sell?